You might presume to know one, or all, of these songs. This is Oasis, after all, surely one of the most well beloved anthem-makers in the last 20 years of British rock, and this is their best-of. This must be time to hoist high a frothy tankard and join in a group sing-a-long.

Well, it is, and it isn't. The biggest hits are, of course, here, and there's still not a microsecond to "Wonderwall" or "Don't Look Back In Anger" or "Cigarettes and Alcohol" not worth hollering along with. But the 26-song Time Flies is more than a greatest-hits playlist. It's also an alternate view of the brief, tumultuous reign of the Brothers Gallagher. The conventional narrative — godlike rock stars, mountains of coke, epic psychosexual sibling rivalry, the Future of Britpop, "Blur Vs. Oasis," Patsy Kensit, massive unibrows — is a dizzy whirl of tabloid fun, and it will always be central to the Oasis Mythology. But, at a certain point, it slights the music — according to this narrative, Oasis effectively evaporated from the Earth after Be Here Now. But, as Time Flies ably demonstrates, the former Kings of Britpop kept making excellent music long after they had been… read more »